Artemis Fowl: Dawn of the Sídhe
by Awesomenorwegian
Summary: When a retrieval squad is sent to investigate a shuttle disappearance in the abandoned chute E42, a series of events are unleashed which will shake the foundations of the Lower Elements and push Artemis Fowl and Holly short to the brink. A new enemy has emerged from the shadows, which threatens Fairy and human civilization alike. Revamped as of now.
1. Prologue

**AN: Recently, I read through the chapters I'd posted in this story, and I realized that I was not at all satisfied with them. This story was my original reason for becoming a member of this site, and having gained a bit more experience in writing, and a Beta Reader, I've decided to revamp it almost completely. It still has the same OCs though.**

**Special thanks to Harry Artemis Jackson for helping me Beta this chapter, despite her being sick as shit. **

**Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Artemis Fowl, because if I did, I'd be out there making a ton of money off of him, and not fooling around on the internet writing fanfiction. **

* * *

**E42, SOMEWHERE BENEATH THE PACIFIC, SIX MONTHS AFTER TAC**

Leaf Debark was not pleased, even though he had several reasons to be. After all, this was his first official mission as a part of the LEP's Retrieval division, after years of training and denied applications. Finally, after 10 long years, he'd found his way out of the Traffic division, and was trembling to see some action. He'd listened fervently to the stories told by the veterans in the canteen in the Police Plaza, tales of exchanging fire with fire breathing goblins in shut-down chutes, hunting escaped trolls under the shining moonlight, and so on. How could he not be excited after all this? Joining Retrieval was the dream of every young, male fairy at some point in their lives.

And yet, Leaf Debark was not pleased. And the reason for this was the fairy that'd been placed in charge of this mission, Captain Grub Kelp.

To Leaf, it was a complete mystery how a pencil-loving, whiny, annoying idiot like Grub had managed to ascend to such a prestigious position like Retrieval Captain. When he'd asked his friend/mentor Hedge, a 150 year Retrieval veteran, he'd just chuckled and said that the new commander probably hoped that giving his little brother some responsibility would straighten him out. Leaf very much doubted that.

Leaf leaned slightly forward, towards Hedge, who was seated opposite of him, about four knee lengths away. The shuttles Retrieval members got to travel in were pretty spacious, unlike the titanium pods the Recon guys had to use, poor buggers.

"Hey Hedge, what do think of the mission?"

The older elf was busy checking his equipment, and did not even glance up at his younger teammate. "What about it?"

"Doesn't it seem a little strange?" Leaf asked, looking toward the cockpit door, which was currently open. He could see Grub talking to the pilot, who was busy keeping the shuttle steady in its flight. Their pilot held no belief in auto piloting.

"I mean, this shuttle we're supposed to find disappeared… what was it… two months ago without a trace on a mission in E15, and then suddenly chooses today to start sending out signals again, on the other side of the planet from where it was last seen? You don't find that even a _little_ strange?"

Hedge shrugged. "Maybe a little, but there are several probable explanations. This wouldn't be the first time the emergency signal is delayed for some reason. That stuck-up centaur may believe his inventions are flawless, but I've seen enough cadets smash into cavern walls because of defects in their wings to justify disagreeing with that." He paused. "Although, extraordinary events seem to have become almost commonplace since 'the Fowl incident."

Leaf couldn't agree more with that. When Fowl had discovered them all those years ago, he had still been stuck in the Traffic division. Since then they'd had an attempted goblin revolution, a megalomaniacal pixie trying to scorch half of Haven with a million tons of melted metal, the demons returning from Limbo and God knows what else. One thing connected them all. Artemis Fowl.

"Speaking of Fowl," Leaf said, "is it really true that he's been reformed? That he's on our side now?"

More shrugging. "He's not on the list of the Top Ten Public Enemies anymore, that's for sure. I even heard that he was the one that took down Turnball Root when the old guy escaped six months ago."

That surprised Leaf. "I thought Short did that."

"I know a guy who has family in the Council. Apparently the official report downplayed Fowl's importance greatly. Wouldn't want the public to know that a Mud Whelp saved us all again, you know?"

Leaf wanted to answer that, but at that precise moment the pilot chose to inform them that they had reached their destination.

"Looks like we'll use our legs from here on, kid," Hedge said, rising.

The whole squadron, with the exception of the pilot, exited the shuttle through the back ramp. Sensors showed that they were approximately 1.5 klicks from the source of the signal, and since the side-tunnel they had entered was so narrow at this point, it would be foolish to try to take it all the way to their goal.

Captain Kelp took point himself, jogging up the stony slope. The rest of the party followed, spreading out in loose formation, turning on their helmet lights. The cave darker than the inside of a dwarf's rectum.

Leaf tried accessing his helmet computer, hoping to find a map or something, but no such luck. This cavern was unmapped. He had drawn his Neutrino 3000 when they exited the shuttle, but noticed now that none of the others had drawn their guns. He quickly put it back in its holster. He didn't want to appear nervous in front of his new team members, especially Hedge.

When they reached the top of the slope, Captain Grub held up one fist. "Halt everyone, I can see movement down there… Oh D'Arvit, it's a troll!"

Leaf noted a slight tremble in the captain's voice. Pathetic. As if a lone troll posed a threat to a full LEP squadron, no matter how big it was. He jumped on top of a boulder, peering down the slope. Yes, there it was, lumbering around far below them. Its hide was greyish, betraying its old age. But it was still a 350 kilos killing machine that could rip any elf apart with ease.

"It doesn't look like it's noticed us," Grub continued quickly, probably to cover up his momentary display of fear. "Ehm, Sergeant Whirlpool, any suggestions?"

"Protocol demand that we do not engage trolls below ground unless it's absolutely necessary," Hedge said. "We could use our shields to sneak around it, but I'd advice that Vice uses his rifle to neutralize it. We don't know what awaits us further into the tunnel, and having a full-grown bull troll behind us could complicate things."

"Excellent," Grub said. He always turned to Hedge whenever he was unsure of what action would be the best, which was most of the time. "Private, take your rifle and put that troll down."

"Yes sir," Vice said, pulling his Longbow 3000(specialized version of the neutrino Farshot) from his back holster. Vice was the team's long range expert. With his specialized pulse rifle, he could hit a butterfly in flight a kilometer away. He went down on one knee, took aim for a second or two, and fired. The laser beam hit the troll right between the eyes. The hairy creature fell over like a sack of stones, its dirty dreadlocks fluttering.

"Out cold," Vice said, holstering his rifle again. "He'll wake up in about three hours, though his head will hurt for considerably longer."

"Well then, we're Oscar Mike," Grub said, walking down the slope. Leaf rolled his eyes behind the visor. The captain had seen one too many American war movies.

When they passed the troll, Leaf could not keep himself from touching one of the beast's yellowed tusks. Despite the troll's old age, they were still razor sharp. It was the first time he'd seen a troll that was not a picture on a screen, and he had to tear himself away from it. His natural, elvish curiosity demanded a closer look.

They continued into the tunnel for another five minutes, encountering nothing but a few swear toads, showering them with vulgar insults. Leaf had to fight the urge to draw his Neutrino and fire at the blasted things. He was nervous enough as it was, he didn't need these d'arvn toads agitating him.

Finally, the tunnel expanded as they entered a cavern the size of a crunchball stadium. Stalagmites and stalactites were hanging from the stone ceiling and rising from the floor, occasionally joining together to create forms that resembled hourglasses. The shuttle was grounded between two of those, like a sliver of spinach between two teeth. Leaf checked his computer. The signal was stronger than ever.

"Orders, captain?" Hedge said, his neutrino now drawn. Leaf quickly drew his own weapon.

"Right," Grub said, who had just spaced out for some reason. "Uhm, Sergeant, why don't you take two men with you and check it out? The rest of us will hold this position."

"Affirmative," Hedge said. "Leaf, Vice, on me."

Hedge taking point, the three of them moved down towards the shuttle, guns pointing forward. Leaf switched the helmet filter in an effort to see the shuttle's interior, but it didn't work. Not surprising really. Many shuttles were built to withstand all kinds of scanning.

They made their way to the front of the shuttle, the only possible entrance, since the side doors were blocked by stone. Hedge brushed some dirt off the cockpit window so that he could look through it. "No signs of life," he said. "I'm entering, Captain."

"Affirmative," Grub answered.

Hedge moved the setting of his weapon to five and shot the cockpit window, which then evaporated completely within a few seconds. "Leaf, go and check the engine while Vice and I go inside," he said while sliding into the cockpit, quickly followed by Vice.

"Got it," Leaf said, making his way to the back of the shuttle.

"I'm inside the cargo hold," Leaf heard Hedge say over the radio. "No signs of life. The cargo seems untouched though."

"Nothing wrong here either," Leaf answered, pointing at the shuttle's thrusters with his helmet cam, so that the rest of the team could see. "No signs of exterior damage." He paused. "What do we do now?"

"Hold on," Captain Kelp's voice crackled over the radio. "Let me see if I can't contact Foaly…" A moment of silence went by. "No, communications are still dead. Must be because of the magma flares."

"The pilot may be able to establish connection," Hedge suggested.

"Right," Grub said. "One, are you hearing this?"

"..."

The sound of crackling static gave Leaf gooseflesh on his arms and neck. Why the hell wasn't he responding?

"One?" Grub repeated, fighting very hard to keep his tone calm and authoritarian. "Are you there? Come in, One."

"..."

"One!" Grub was almost shouting now. "Answer me, D'Arvit!"

"Calm down, Captain," Hedge's cool voice sounded in all their helmets. "Could be equipment failure. I recommend we retrieve the shuttle's black box and then return to the drop point as quickly as possible."

"Uhu," Grub swallowed loudly. "Yeah, you do that. Then get back here. I've got a bad feeling about this."

Leaf accessed his helmet computer and tapped into Hedge's helmet cam. He could clearly see Hedge make his way back into the cockpit. The black box, the device that recorded all flight history, was located under the co-pilot's seat in most LEP shuttles. Hedge lifted the seat, revealing a small, black cube.

"There it is," Hedge breathed. "It looks unharmed."

Leaf began to walk around the closest stalagmite, towards the cockpit. "Take it out so we can get the hell out of here."

"Easy kid," Hedge said, grabbing the Rubik's Cube sized device with his right hand. "You can't just yank this out. It requires a certain finesse to-"

Light. First came the light, so bright that the feed from Hedge's camera was cut instantly. Then came the shockwave, blasting trough stone and metal, sending Leaf flying. A rock hit the side of his helmet, creating a dent half as big as his fist. Then came the sound, a deafening roar that would have blown Leaf's eardrums completely if it hadn't been for the protective gel around his ears. All air was knocked out of his lungs when he hit the ground. For a split second, he could just lie there, paralyzed by shock. Then he got his mind together, and looked up.

Where the shuttle, Hedge and Vice had been a few seconds ago, remained only a crater. The stalagmites had been blown away as well. A part of Leaf mind reasoned that they were the only reason he was still alive.

"Hedge…" he hissed, pushing himself up on his knees. Inside the helmet, he could hear people screaming, though their voices were muffled. His equipment was badly damaged. Foaly would be pissed.

"Hedge…" He started crawling towards the crater, ignoring all pain. He could feel the sparks ripple across his skin beneath the jumpsuit. He must be seriously injured.

"Hedge…"

Suddenly, he was aware of gunfire around him. He looked up and saw a sprite in black-painted armor fly over his head. He was holding a pulse rifle in his hands, firing at something behind him. Leaf turned his head sideways. His team was surrounded by attackers, all dressed in the same, black uniform. He could hear the panicked screams of his comrades in the helmet speakers.

"Cover me!"

"Grenade!"

"D'Arvit, they're on all sides!"

"Suppressing fire-" The last voice was abruptly cut off, at the same time as Leaf saw a gnomish member of his team fall to the ground, vapour steaming from the place where his head had been located a second before.

Something told Leaf that he should draw his gun, but when he reached for his holster, he realized that he'd lost it when the shuttle exploded. It didn't really matter anyway. The gunfire had stopped. All members of Retrieval 2 were either dead or unconscious, with the lone exception of him.

He heard footsteps somewhere behind him. He turned his head to the side. A tall fairy was walking towards him across the stony floor, kicking small rocks away as he did so. He was completely covered up by his black uniform, which armor consisted of some kind of metal scales. He was wearing a helmet, and even his tail was covered by the suit…

Wait… a tail?

The fairy walked up beside him and raised one hand to his helmet, pressing in some kind of button. Gas hissed from several outlets as he took it off, revealing a long, green face that ended with a snout and a forked tongue.

"Quite a sight, eh?" the goblin said, motioning at the crater in front of them. His voice was husky and drawling. "It wasn't easy to get that shuttle all the way out here, especially since this is troll territory. But we got it in place eventually, and lo and behold, it took you only three hours to walk straight into our little ambush."

Leaf started to scan the ground around him. Gun.

"The LEP is so naïve," the goblin continued, still studying the charred stone where the shuttle had been. "Believing that that arrogant donkey and his toys make them invincible. It certainly didn't help those two poor devils when we ambushed them in E15. Our electromagnetic canons fried their systems like this." He snapped his fingers. "They kicked and screamed like children when we threw them down the chute. Pathetic, though I suppose I can empathize a little. If someone had launched me down into the center of the earth, I'd be screaming as well. Being fireproof helps very little when you're covered in magma."

There it was, his Neutrino, halfway buried beneath a pile of ash. He started crawling towards it, feeling the magic slowly restore the strength to his damaged limbs.

"You should know, elf," the goblin said, strolling indolently after the crawling elf, his tail swinging slowly back and forth with each step, "that this is nothing personal. You knew, when you signed up for this, that you'd just taken up the most dangerous profession in the business. Don't curse me, fortune, or anything else for the situation you now find yourself in. Your own two feet brought you here."

When his fingers finally gripped around the handle of his Neutrino, Leaf felt that the initial shock at the deaths of his comrades had been replaced by anger. The sound of footsteps behind him had ceased. Putting his palm on the ground, he pushed himself up shakily and turned around, getting a good look at the goblin for the first time.

The goblin was simply humongous, probably a full foot taller than himself. His proportions were unusual as well. Instead of being round and heavy around the waist, with tiny legs, like most goblins were, he was lean and long-legged, like an elf. Leaf could see the sinews in his neck stretch out as the goblin cocked his head to the side. Two, slit, reptilian pupils framed by red irises regarded the young elf with latent emotion. Perhaps there was the tiniest of smiles playing in the corners of his wide mouth.

"Sure about this, elf?" he asked rhetorically as he stared down the muzzle which very nearly touched his chest. "At this distance, you might fry some of my brain cells, and being a goblin, I don't have all that many to spare in the first place."

Leaf squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened.

"Hmm," the goblin mused, looking down on him. "That didn't work out too well."

Leaf blinked frantically. Why hadn't the gun fired? Was it damaged!? He pressed the trigger three more times. Nothing!

"I know you're a rookie and all," the goblin said, pulling a cigarette out of a front pocket, lighting it with a snap of his fingers, "but as a member of Retrieval 2, shouldn't you know better than to try to shoot someone with the safety still on?"

Leaf looked down at his Neutrino, dumbfounded. How could he have forgotten to remove the safety? This… this was getting ridiculous! He was standing in front of the fairy who had just murdered his entire team, being lectured in proper handling of firearms!

"D'Arvit!" He coughed, switching the bloody thing off. The concentrated laser beam hit the goblin in the chest, just as he put the glowing cigarette in his mouth. The laser dispersed upon meeting the fabric of his uniform and then… nothing happened.

"You know," the goblin said, patting the spot on his chest where the beam had impacted, "I honestly wasn't sure if the shields would hold at this distance." He shifted his stance, blowing smoke into Leaf's face. "The suit employs weak nuclear force to stop Neutrinos. Funny how your centaur genius never thought of that, eh? You could try switching to a higher setting… but I wouldn't recommend it."

_D'Arvit!_ Leaf's hand went for the small wheel that controlled the Neutrino's power and concentration.

The goblin's left hand smashed into his right, knocking the weapon away. Leaf couldn't make himself do a thing before the goblin's right hook broke through his visor, breaking his nose. The world went black with pain. He was barely aware of it when the goblin wrenched his helmet off of his head.

Lead staggered backwards, clutching his face. The sparks were already working on his nose, but this only put him at a greater disadvantage, as the flickering, blue light obstructed his vision. He couldn't see the goblin, couldn't hear him, didn't even know where he was until a fist dug into his midsection. Air hissed from his lungs as he fell to his knees.

The last of the sparks sunk into his skin and his vision was suddenly clear. The goblin was staring down at him, looking a little disappointed. "Well, that was easy," he commented as he put one foot on Leaf's shoulder, pushing him down on his back. "Retrieval guys used to be tough."

Leaf raised his hand and clawed at the goblin's thigh, but his nails could do nothing against the hard, leathery fabric. The goblin slapped his hand away and put one booted foot one the elf's throat. Putting his forearms on his knee, he leaned forward. "Tell me," he breathed, smoke coming from his nostrils, "you got anything to say?"

Leaf tried to speak, but his windpipe was blocked. The goblin noticed, decreasing the pressure on the elf's throat with a Newton or two.

"Well?"

"I'm gonna kill you," Leaf spat.

"Funny you should say that," the goblin grinned, a yellow flame taking form in his hand. "You see, I was thinking the exact same thing myself."

* * *

Grub stumbled in his own feet three times while running up the stony slope. His heart was beating so furiously that it wouldn't have surprised him if it jumped right out of his chest.

_I'm not abandoning them; I'm running to get reinforcements._ He did not know how many times he'd repeated that same sentence in his head after running away from the battlefield. When the first of his men had fallen, he'd begun shielding on instinct and then ran away. What could he have done anyway? They were completely outgunned. If he escaped, at least then the LEP would know what happened.

He could see the shuttle now; it was still there, thank Frond. He could even see the outline of their pilot through the cockpit window. He pushed the door open with his shoulder and stumbled into the small craft.

"Get us out of here!" He screamed at the pilot's back. "We're under attack! Try to establish contact with Haven!"

The pilot did not answer. In fact, he didn't even acknowledge Grub's presence. This made Grub panic even more.

"D'Arvit!" He shouted. "Are you deaf!? We need to go!" He slapped the back of the pilot's head to emphasize on the urgency of his words, something that caused the head to fall of the pilot's shoulders and roll under his seat. Grub stared at the pilot's headless corpse, then at the spot where the head had disappeared, and back to the corpse again. Just as he did so, the head came rolling back. Their eyes met.

Grub screamed for his mommy and stumbled backwards, bile forcing its way up his gullet. He fell on his knees outside of the shuttle, vomiting on the ground. The taste of gall ached in his mouth. He looked up.

"Aw," said the goblin, his wings retracting into his armored suit. "Should probably have disposed of the body after opening his neck with that laser cutter. My bad." He flicked his cigarette away.

Grub reached down to his side, hands shaking, and drew his gun. The goblin copied his move, producing an ugly-looking firearm from a thigh holster. "Drop it, Kelp, before I do to you what I did to that gung-ho looking private of yours."

"Y-you are under arrest," Grub said. To his credit, he only stuttered a little. "Surrender your firearm."

The goblin whistled. A second later, ten fairies, all elves, gnomes, and sprites, appeared behind him. They all had guns, every single one of them aimed at Grub's chest. The Retrieval captain let the Neutrino slide from his fingers.

The goblin stepped forward, kicking it into the chute beside them. "Tell me, elf," he said, squatting in front of Grub, "what would you be willing to do to keep your life?"

* * *

When they were finished recording, Blaze ordered his men to drag the terrified Grub to the ship they'd hid only a few hundred meters away. It was one of three stealth shuttles that the organization possessed, all designed after the one originally built by Opal Koboi, though considerably smaller. He was alone now, gazing out into the chute, whose walls stretched out for miles to either side of him. It was one of the earth's greatest natural wonders, and the only one the Mud Men would never enjoy the sight of. He turned away. Enough daydreaming, it was time to remove the evidence.

They had left the bodies of the retrieval members beside the sleeping troll. When it woke up, it would devour them all, meat, uniforms and helmets alike. Let the LEP analyze the troll dung if they wanted, it would not tell them anything. The shuttle they had arrived in however…

He took a quick look down the chute by peering over the edge of the cliff. He could not have seen the bottom even if he'd brought a pair of binoculars. Dropping the shuttle down there should do the trick. He turned and jumped into the small craft, pushing the pilot's headless corpse out of the pilot seat and activated the thrusters, setting the output to a minimum. The shuttle started to slide forward, slowly. He jumped out again and backed away. It only took a few seconds for the shuttle to reach, and disappear over the edge. Blaze heard it slam into the chute wall once, and then it was gone.

"All in a day's work," the goblin said, pulling another cigarette from his pocket, allowing himself a few moments to gaze into the humongous pressure elevator. You didn't get to enjoy a view like that every day.

"Blaze," a voice from behind him said. If the goblin had been told to use a color to describe it, he would have chosen black, black as night time in dark space. "How often have I told you that you must treasure your health? Give them 800 years, and those cigarettes will render you a physical wreck."

Blaze let the cigarette follow the shuttle down into the chute, turned around, and went down on one knee, all in one move. "Master," he said, keeping his gaze directed at the ground. "You were not with us in the shuttle."

"Indeed," the voice answered. To fully describe it, Blaze would have used the nouns darkness, cold, and metal.

"May I ask how you got here?"

Two feet stepped into his view, clothed in metallic boots. "You should know very well that I don't require shuttles to get around with haste."

Of course he knew that. What he didn't know was how.

His master continued. "I saw that you've managed to capture the commander's brother. Well done. We shall make good use of him."

Blaze nodded. They had already done that.

"It should not be long until the LEP realize that they've lost another one of their best teams. Their recent losses on Iceland taken into account, their elite branch is weaker than it has been for centuries. With the commander worried about his missing brother, this will be the perfect time for us to strike."

Blaze nodded again. "You've still not told me what task my team will handle."

"When the time comes for us to strike," the master said slowly, "when our fist of iron descends upon the Lower Elements, you will handle the most important task of them all, and as a result, I will expect you to be at the apex of your physical and mental faculties in the time to come. Speaking of which, how are your augmentations treating you?"

Blaze lifted one hand to touch his temple. He could almost feel the metal inside. He had been born with a series of anomalies in his brain that made him significantly more intelligent than the average goblin, but a good part of his intellectual abilities could be credited to the cybernetic augmentations the master had fused with it. In addition, his skull and a large part of his skeleton had been enhanced with platinum, to protect the guinea project which he was truly grateful to be.

"Better than ever," he said. "I'm ready."

"So be it." A hand covered with a black glove came into his view, palm up. In the middle of the palm, a small crystal was located. It was glowing. "This is your target." A three-dimensional image the size of a thumb appeared a few centimeters above it. It was a human, a young male, with hair as black as the dress he wore. Blaze had never seen the infamous Mud Boy with his own eyes, but he'd seen enough footage and pictures of him to immediately recognize the one who'd stolen half a ton of gold from the LEP six years ago.

"Artemis Fowl," he said.

The master's fingers bent upwards, forming a cage around the hologram. "Yes, Artemis Fowl. When Haven falls, you will bring him to me. At any cost."

"What do we need the Mud Boy for?" Blaze asked, unable to suppress his curiosity. The Mud Boy would be a valuable asset, if brought under their control, sure, but was it really worth moving Heaven and Earth to get him? Surely the Master's genius outclassed this Mud Whelp's.

When the master spoke again, the voice was darker than a banker's conscience "What I need this… Mud Boy for, is none of your concern. You need only concern yourself with bringing him to me, alive, and as unharmed as possible. If he's got one too many scratches once you present him to me, I'll flay you alive and use your hide as cover for my seat on The Valkyrie, all the resources I've poured into you be damned. Do you understand?"

Blaze nodded wordlessly. If his skin had possessed pores, he'd be sweating like a gnome in the plasma sauna.

"Good." The hand closed around the hologram as it disappeared. "Now go, return to your men. The next few days will be the most important in the history of our organization. Soon, the word Sídhe will be known to everyone beneath the earth… and above it." The hand disappeared, like a mirage brought too close. Blaze was once again alone.

"D'Arvit," he muttered, when he was sure the master was gone. He pushed himself back on his feet and started walking toward the shuttle, which they had landed a bit further into the tunnel. The stealth shuttle lived up to his name, and he only found it again because Garrick, his elvish second in command, was standing right on top of it. It looked like he was levitating.

"Get down from there!" Blaze barked. "You'll damage the cam foil!"

"Unlikely," Garrick said, jumping down in front of his superior. "The fuselage of this craft is built to withstand lasers." Garrick was tall and lean, with shoulder-length dark hair. "And what were you doing over there? You didn't need ten minutes to get rid of that shuttle."

"Shut up and open the door." Talking to the master had put him in a bad mood.

"Touchy, touchy," Garrick muttered, knocking on the side of the shuttle with his fist. Almost immediately, a door hissed open. Blaze bowed his head and entered. Inside, the rest of his team was assembled, chatting informally, as if they'd just returned from a crunchball match and not a military assignment where they'd slaughtered over a dozen people.

"Hey, boss!" Barky yelled, waving a nettle beer. Barky was a bulky gnome, almost a full meter tall. He was the team's explosive expert, and the one who had detonated the charges they'd hid inside the stolen LEP shuttle. "Want a beer?"

"Where's the prisoner?" Blaze asked, ignoring the offered refreshment.

Barky pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "In the cell. He wouldn't shut up about his mommy, so I knocked him the hell out. I hope you don't mind?"

Blaze didn't. "Get us out of here, Garrick."

Garrick obliged, making his way into the cockpit. A moment later, Blaze could feel the stealth shuttle ascend, and then shoot forward. Blaze pushed a nagging Barky away, shutting himself inside his tiny cabin. It had just enough space for a bunk and a locker; the master did not much care for comfort. He brought one hand to his suit computer and typed in the Mud Genius's name, roaming the database for information. The first thing that came up was two different psychic profiles, one written by Dr. Jerbal Argon. He skipped Argon's report (bloody, gnomish witch doctor quack), and went right to the other one. Strangely enough, it was not stated who'd written it, even though it had to be someone inside their organization. He shrugged.

A picture of a dark-haired boy in the middle of his teens with mismatched eyes appeared. Blaze studied it with mild interest. So this was the "most important task" that his master had entrusted to him. While his comrades would face down tactical LEP squadrons, he would lead his team, the organization's best and brightest, to capture this boy.

"Okay, Fowl," Blaze muttered, poking at the Mud Boy's face with one, sharp, green nail. "You better be worth the trouble."

Thousands of kilometers away, in Haven City, Artemis Fowl stirred in his sleep.

* * *

**AN: And that's it for now. More chapters will follow, but Those Sunny Schooldays still has the majority of my focus, don't get nervous. **


	2. Diggums and Day, private investigators

Artemis Fowl was pleased, and had several reasons to be so. First of all, his mentality was healthier than it had been for years, as he was now completely cured of the Atlantis Complex. It was four months since the last time Orion had taken control of his body, and two weeks since the last time he started upon hearing the word "four". Second, he was but a mere week away from being released from Argon's clinic. He suspected that the doctor was purposely delaying his discharge in order to obtain more material for his dreadful book, but alas, there was little he could do about that. Of course, if the book, when it was eventually published, portrayed him in a light which fell short of his liking, the good doctor would soon find his tax records, records that showed that he owed the council almost sixty kilos of gold in unpaid taxes, accessible to the public on the undernet.

But enough daydreaming. He had spent almost a total of six months in this damn clinic, six idle months of wasted time. When he got out, there would be some much to do. Not only did he have to resume "The Project", his master plan to neutralize global warming, he had now laid the groundwork for eight additional projects which, if realized, would end world hunger, exterminate HIV and AIDS, etc. His little "vacation" had given him a _lot _of time to think, so perhaps his time had not been _entirely _wasted. Just mostly.

He looked up from the book he was holding. Butler was sitting a few meters away from him, in the specialized chair Foaly had put together for him. He was currently disassembling his beloved Sig Sauer, its different pieces laid out on a black cloth placed over his knees. His manservant's painstakingly care for all his equipment was the only reason the old roscoe was still operational. How long had Butler been carrying that weapon? Nine years? Ten? Eleven?

"Butler, how long have you been carrying that weapon?"

Butler did not even glance up at his young principal, busy as he was with oiling the barrel. "It belonged to the Major."

Only eight years. Yes, he remembered now. In the wake of losing his father, and the family fortune, it wasn't weird that he had failed to notice Butler change from his faithful Glock 17 to a new handgun.

"And for how long did he employ it?"

"Not sure."

"Hm," Artemis mused, losing interest in the subject. "Have you heard anything from Mother lately?" His mother was the only member of his family fully aware of his true location. His father and his siblings on the other hand, had been led to believe that he was taking a _long _vacation at an unspecified resort, recovering from stress. The council had refused to grant his mother permission to visit her son, which did not exactly sit well with Mrs. Fowl. It had taken a lot of persuasion on Artemis' part to stop her from causing a diplomatic incident by storming down into the center of the earth to claim her lost son.

"She called last night, while you were sleeping."

Artemis frowned. "Why haven't you mentioned this before now?"

"It was nothing important, she just wanted a status report," the manservant answered, pulling the slide back several times to make sure it worked smoothly. It did.

"And what did you tell her?" Artemis inquired.

"What you told me to tell her," Butler answered, putting the magazine back into the gun.

"Good," Artemis said, averting his gaze back to the book. A few minutes of quiet went by while Artemis read and Butler practiced reloading the Sig Sauer with his eyes closed. Artemis took his eyes away from the book for a minute, timing his friend.

_0.8 seconds slower than he was just a year ago, _he thought. _He's getting old, not only physically, but mentally as well. _It was true. Despite his fervent training, Butler could not hold the weights quite as high as he once could, nor run quite as fast as he used to on the treadmill. Artemis had noticed it more than once while training together with his bodyguard (Argon, Holly and Butler had made a joint front to force him into doing physical exercises daily).

_It doesn't matter, _he told himself, returning to the book once again. _Those days of fighting trolls and getting shot in the chest are over. From now on, you'll have it easy, old friend, I promise. _Or at least, so he hoped. Briar Cudgeon was dead, along with Turnball Root. The present Opal Koboi, Jon Spiro and Billy Kong were all locked up, and Leon Abbot had been turned into a hamster or something. Of all his old enemies, only Opal Koboi from the past was loose, and there was little she could do between her complete lack of resources and the LEP breathing down her neck. She would be captured soon, or that was what Holly kept telling him anyway. Apparently, after the Turnball incident, she had persuaded Foaly into pulling some strings to get the Council to put her in charge of Opal's manhunt. Artemis, though, was developing doubts. Months and months of searching, and they were still no closer to bringing her in. It was like she had vanished from the face of the earth. Artemis was actually starting to wonder whether or not the past Opal had found her way back to her own time. But wouldn't that have affected the timeline if she went back without having a mind-wipe?

His phone rang, demanding his attention. He picked it up from the bed table beside him and checked the number. Mulch. A wry smile on his face, he lifted the mobile to his ear.

"Hello Mister Bounty Hunter. How's life treating you?"

"You know very well that I prefer the term 'private investigator', Mud Boy. Surely remembering that would be a piece of cake for a smarty pants like you," a gruff voice said.

"Well, Mister Private Investigator, what can I do for you?" Artemis said with his best mock-courteous tone.

"Zoid Copperly," Mulch said. "State official."

"Give me a minute," Artemis said, accessing one of LEP's many databases on his laptop. Foaly, after realizing that he was completely powerless to keep Artemis out of his system, had decided to just grant the teenager free access. That way he could tell himself that he _could _have kept the Mud Boy at bay, if he really, _really _wanted to.

"Zoid Copperly," Artemis said. "Gnome, 635 years old, honor member of The Brotherhood of Bog, divorced twice, no children." He paused for a minute while he quickly read through the rest of the profile. "Looks squeaky clean," he finally said. "Why are you after him?"

Mulch's and Doodah's bounty hunter business had prospered after Artemis' hospitalization. For a long time, Foaly had been feeding them prototypes from his lab for testing purposes. A couple of months ago, when Artemis had been cured of the worst of the complex, he'd started to assist Mulch, like he'd once helped Holly before she rejoined Recon. This was the fourth time the dwarf asked him to investigate an individual.

"There's a rumor in the streets that he's involved with the smuggling of fairy dust in Haven," Mulch answered.

Artemis's right eyebrow rose. "Fairy dust?"

"A new type of drug," Mulch supplemented. "It's said to enhance one's magical abilities, very popular among the races with limited powers, you know, sprites, dwarfs and pixies. It's illegal because it's not been properly researched yet, nobody knows anything about the side effects."

"I see," Artemis said. "And where does this substance originate from?"

"It's smuggled here from Atlantis, that's much for sure," Mulch said, "but I don't have the faintest idea who's producing it. Probably an individual or a small group out to earn some easy gold."

"Well, I don't see anything here that could help your investigation. There's nothing unusual here… wait a minute."

"What?" Mulch asked eagerly. "Did you find something?"

"This is strange," Artemis said. "It looks like this Copperly recently bought one of the closed-down Koboi Labs."

"What kind of lab?"

"Biochemistry," Artemis said.

Mulch whistled. "They're setting up a production center _inside _Haven," he said.

"That's not at all unlikely," Artemis agreed.

"Great," Mulch said. Artemis could hear the grin in his voice. "Now we just need to tail him while he visits the place, take some revealing pictures, drop them on Kelp's table and _bam_, big reward!"

"Trouble set you up to this?" Artemis asked.

"More or less," Mulch said. "Officially, we have no ties to the LEP, but I still share a sim-coffee with Foaly now and then, if you know what I mean."

"I understand," Artemis chuckled.

"Anyway, I heard from Holly that you're no longer jumping like a rabbit every time somebody mentions the evil fours. You getting out soon?"

"One week," Artemis said. "One week from now I'll be a free man once again."

"I suppose I can empathize with that," the dwarf said. "Ehm, can I count on your assistance even after you've returned to the surface?"

"I'll be a lot busier than before, mildly speaking, but if 'assistance' only means hacking into the LEP's database once in a while, I suppose we could work something out," Artemis said.

"Hacking? I thought donkey-boy had allowed you access to his files?"

"His least decrypted files," Artemis smiled, a hint of the old vampirism on his lips. "He has no idea that I'm as deep as an oil driller in his systems." He paused. "Please don't tell him that."

Coarse laughter resounded in his phone. "My lips are sealed with 42 seals."

* * *

"Almost there. Ready to fly, Captain?"

Holly put on her helmet, and positioned herself in front of the back ramp. "I'm ready."

"Affirmative. Good hunting." The pilot closed the door to the cockpit and opened the back ramp. Holly closed her eyes and let herself by sucked backwards into the chute. She reopened them after a few seconds, watching the shuttle disappear from her line of sight. She then twisted herself around in the air, letting her wings slide out from her suit. She fell an additional seven meters before she stopped, hovering in place almost in the center of the vast chute.

"Talk to me Foaly."

"I hear you," came the answer.

"Seven meters before stop, Foaly? A Dragonfly 15 can do better than that. What in Frond's name have you been up to in that lab of yours recently?"

Foaly let out an indignant neigh. "You're not using the controller correctly. Eagle 1 has a braking length of three meters."

"I hold half the LEP flight records Foaly, shuttles and wings. You may have built the thing, but don't come here and tell _me _how to operate a set of wings."

"Fine, fine!" The centaur grumbled. "I'll take a look at it once you come back."

Holly smiled. "Map?"

"Give me a sec." True to his word, a second later, a map of her immediate area appeared in the interface of Holly's helmet computer.

"Retrieval 2 stopped transmitting here," Foaly said, a red dot appearing on the map. "Because of the magma flares. The distress signal they were sent to investigate originated from here." Another red dot, ten klicks from her current position.

"Any clue to what could have happened?" Holly asked as she began to climb toward the side tunnel where Retrieval 2 must have disappeared.

"No idea," Foaly said. "Along with the people in Recon, the personnel in Retrieval are LEP's best, and this was a full squadron. Nothing inside the chutes should have posed a threat to them."

"Chute pirates?" Holly proposed half-heartedly.

"No pirate in his right mind would ever dream of trying to ambush a retrieval squadron, Holly."

"Yeah," Holly sighed.

"Just get in, collect any clues you can, and get out. The LEP can't afford to lose you, Holly."

"I love you too."

"Holly!"

"Ok, I swear I'll be careful."

Half a klick above her, she finally spotted the cave entrance. She reached it in half a minute and landed, her Neutrino pointed forward.

"No sign of the shuttle," she said. "They had to have landed here though, taking it further into this cave would've been sheer idiocy."

"Indeed," Foaly said. "Any marks on the ground?"

"None. The chute winds must have wiped them away."

"Ok. Do some scanning then."

Holly did as he asked, scanning the ground around her feet. Her helmet computer blipped. "Found something," she said, squatting. She reached out and dragged the tip of her finger across the ground, holding it up in front of her visor. "Some kind of body fluid."

"Vomit, to be exact," Foaly said, who were receiving the results of the scanning live.

"Great," Holly said, wiping it off on her sleeve. "DNA?"

"Give me a sec," Foaly said again. This time, she had to wait almost a minute before he could give her the results.

"The DNA belongs to Grub," he finally said.

"Then they were here then," Holly said, getting back on her feet.

"Or at least Grub was."

"I'm going further inside," Holly said, jogging up the stony slope. She encountered nothing but a lumbering bull troll, which she evaded by shielding, and a few swear toads on her way. Eventually, she reached the cavern where the missing shuttle should have been located. It wasn't.

Holly whistled. "That's a big crater." The large hollow in the ground was almost a meter deep, and the crater radius must have been at least six. She picked up a charred piece of metal and brushed off some dirt, revealing a few Gnommish symbols.

"That's the shuttle we're looking for alright," Foaly commented. "What in Frond's name happened here!?"

Something in the corner of her eye caught Holly's attention. Something was lying on the ground a few meters away from her, something rectangular and black. Foaly followed her gaze through the helmet cam. "Go and see what it is."

Holly took four steps and looked down. It was some kind of device, maybe a communicator, lying on the ground. Unlike the rest of the debris inside the crater, it was not dirtied. She picked it up. "What's this?" She asked. "A communicator of some sorts? I've never seen one quite like it."

"Neither have I," said Foaly. That surprised her.

"You did not design this?"

"No. That is not LEP equipment. Which means…"

"Which means that it must have belonged to the ambushers," Holly finished.

"Yes. You better get back here Holly. The team that will conduct the more thorough investigation is already on their way. Bring that communicator straight to me; it might be a vital clue."

"Got it," she said, placing the communicator in one of her back pockets. She swiped the crater once more, but could not find anything else that seemed of value. Finally, she extended her wings and shot out of the cave like a projectile, the faint sound of earth being melted in the mantel far below her playing in her ears.

_Be safe Grub. _

* * *

"Follow that car," Mulch said, pointing forward with one thick, calloused finger.

"I know!" Doodah growled. "What the hell do you think this is? A d'arvn taxi?" He paused, remembering that the vehicle he was currently seated in actually _was _a taxi, which he had hot-wired just five minutes previously. "Don't answer that."

Mulch flashed his two impressive rows of tombstone-like teeth in banana grin. "Sorry, partner, I've just always wanted to say that."

"Whatever," Doodah grumbled, pushing the pedal in as far as he could with his short legs. They had been shadowing this Copperly guy for hours now, waiting for him to visit that factory the Fowl kid had told them he'd recently bought. Until now though, he'd just done some shopping and had an early dinner with his mistress or something, who he'd just dropped off in one of Havens more questionable neighborhoods. Quite frankly, he was beginning to wonder whether or not they were just wasting their time, or at least, so he thought, until Copperly swung out on the highway that lead to Haven's western, industrial district.

"Yes!" Mulch hissed when the elf pulled over outside former Koboi Lab 4. Doodah quickly backed the car a few meters, so that it was hidden behind a street corner. He then grabbed a camera from the glove compartment and jumped out of the car, following a very eager Mulch. Copperly, stopped in front of the factory's main entrance, scanning his surroundings with small, pig-like eyes. The bounty hunter duo evaded his searching gaze by hiding behind a recycling container. Finally, the gnome went in. Unfortunately, he locked the door behind him.

"D'Arvit!" Doodah swore.

"No worries my friend," Mulch said, his right hand digging into the earth. "The ground here is just soft enough for me to work something out." And with that, he unhinged his jaw and went to work, making sure that the tunnel did not close behind him when he disappeared into the ground, so that Doodah could follow as well. The pixie had gotten relatively used to this after three years' worth of companionship with the dwarf, and only shuddered a little when he slid down into the hole.

_Still not as bad as that time at the Paradizo manor, _he thought. All the same, he was _very _relieved when Mulch dug his way into the cellar without spraying excrement in his face once.

They quickly covered the tunnel opening with a box of some sort and crept upstairs, which led them to the main lab. Most of the equipment had been confiscated by the LEP after Opal's involvement in the attempted goblin revolution was discovered, and she was put in Argon's clinic. The basic hardware remained though, and it was more than sufficient to produce some illegal drugs, as the two bounty hunters could see as they peeked over a rail on the second floor. About a dozen fairies very busy below them, half of them loading a normal delivery van with canisters, the other half working with a bluish substance on a work table. Mulch immediately recognized it from a picture he'd received from a snitch. Fairy dust.

He motioned for Doodah to start taking pictures, but the pixie was already on it, so the dwarf started looking for Copperly. The gnome was making his way towards the delivery van, clearly annoyed. The way he furiously gesticulated with his arms was a bit of a tip-off. Mulch opened a pocket and pulled out a small device, which he then placed in his left ear. About time to test one of Foaly's newest toys, the Bat Ear. Instantly, every sound in the building seemed three times as loud to Mulch, and making out Copperly's shouts was easy.

"No excuses, I want to talk to your boss right now! Again, where is she!?"

The sprite he was talking to shrugged helplessly.

"Very well," Copperly growled, before jumping into the van and beginning to toss the canisters out. "When you find her, you can tell her she can find herself a new place to run this d'arvn monstrosity! I don't want anything to do with it!"

"And why is that, my friend?" inquired a soft voice.

Mulch gaze jumped a few meters. A strange creature had appeared beside the van. An elf. No, a sprite. Wait a minute. That was unmistakably the face of an elf, female, with pale skin and hair like ink. But the wings that stretched out from her back were definitely organic, not synthetic. But that was impossible!

Mulch blinked twice, but she was still there, arms crossed, two greenish wings hanging from her shoulders. He could see the light from the plasma lamps in the ceiling ripple across the hard, yet almost transparent skin.

_She's a hybrid, _he realized. He knew that elves were compatible with both goblins and gnomes, and could produce infertile offspring with them, but he'd never heard of a sprite/elf hybrid before. Yet there she was, a small, biological miracle, looking up at Copperly with a wry grin.

"I sense that you're a bit upset for some reason. Why don't you follow me into the office, so that we can discuss whatever's on your mind privately?" She offered the gnome a slender hand.

"Don't play with me, Sylph," the gnome growled. "You lied to me."

The hybrid smiled at him innocently. "About what?"

"This!" Copperly yelled, pulling a small Polaroid from a pocket, throwing it in the hybrids face. She caught it effortlessly and took a quick look. Even from this distance, Mulch could see an almost unnoticeable frown on her face. She turned to the dozen workers, who had gathered around her and Copperly in a semicircle. "You're done for today. Go home."

"But the last consignment…" one of the elves objected, before shutting his mouth when the hybrid gave him a sharp look. "If you say so, boss," he mumbled, starting for the exit. He was quickly followed by the rest. When they were gone, the hybrid finally looked at Copperly again.

"Who's this?" She asked, gesturing at the photo.

"My nephew," the gnome said, his voice trembling slightly.

"My condolences."

"Don't give me that crap! I want you to get this abomination off my property, now!"

Mulch exchanged a quick look with Doodah. "Try to zoom in on the picture," he whispered. The pixie nodded, adjusting the lens.

"Calm down, Zoid," the hybrid said, her voice honey and milk. "I know that you're upset, but you have to see the big picture here. It's all for a greater cause."

"Nonsense," Copperly snapped, kicking one of the canisters, causing its contents to spill out on the ground. Mulch thought he could see the hybrid's right eye quiver just a little bit at the sight, but her tone was as smooth as ever when she said: "I'm not joking, Zoey."

"Look at his face!" Copperly shouted, pushing the photo into _her _face. "It looks like a bowl of stinkworm stew! His mind is gone! Wiped away! He's going to be stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life! What the hell did you put in that d'arvn drug!? You told me you'd tested it!"

"Don't get holy with me, Zoey," the hybrid said, her voice much cooler all of a sudden. "I can see on that flashy, new car of yours that you've already put the money I paid you to good use."

"Because I thought that what you were doing were harmless," Copperly screamed, tightening his hands into fists. "Hell, I thought this might turn out to be a major advancement for the fairy race, not that it would turn the users into brain-dead, scarred husks! How many more cases like my nephew!?"

"There may be a few," the hybrid said evasively. "But come on Zoey, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. So a couple no-names won't be able to solve polynomial equations anymore, big deal. Can't you see that it will be worth it in the end?" She put her hands on Copperly's shoulders, leaning down. Their lips were only inches apart, and Mulch could barely hear her voice as she murmured: "Think of all the lives that could be saved if pixies, sprites and dwarfs could use magic like the rest of us."

Copperly placed a hand on her chest, pushing her away. "No. I made a mistake by making this deal with you, and I have no intention of making it again. . ."

"Or else?" The hybrid inquired, her handsome features twisted by a sneer.

"Or else I'll tell LEP everything. Fairy dust, the side effects, your smuggling operations, all of it."

"You do realize you'll follow me to prison, don't you, _Zoey,_" the hybrid jeered. "Are you really prepared for 500 years behind laser bars?"

"If it brings peace to me nephew, then yes," Copperly said, walking past her, towards the exit.

"If you won't do the job, I'll find someone else who will," she said to his back.

"No you won't," he answered without turning. "If you do, I'll inform the LEP. I won't have any additional fairy souls on my conscience."

Despite himself, Mulch could not help but to admire the gnome's sense of principle. He was positive half the Council members would not have had the guts to make this decision.

The hybrid squatted, picking up the Polaroid, which had fallen to the ground, crunching it into a ball in her hand. "Hey, Zoey!"

The gnome stopped, turning reluctantly towards her. "What?"

"You forgot something," she said, tossing the creased photo high into the air.

It happened it a matter of seconds. While the gnome's eyes were distracted by the fluttering piece of plastic, the hybrid pulled a small, black gun from a pocket, quick as a viper, and pointed it at Copperly. The red beam that shot through the room a second later reminded Mulch of the Mud Man fireworks he'd seen on New Year while living in Chicago.

Then, where Zoid's right eye used to be, there was now a perfectly round hole that went all the way through his head. The only emotion Mulch could see in the other eye as the gnome fell backwards was surprise. The only reason for Mulch not throwing up at the sight was the long hardening he'd gone through over several centuries in and out of prison. The much younger Doodah however, who could pilot a shuttle with half its thrusters missing in the center of a hurricane without experiencing the slightest discomfort in his stomach, bowed over as the Japanese crab he'd eaten earlier that day made a quick exit from his digestive apparatus.

The hybrid, or Sylph, as she was apparently named, walked over to the immobile Copperly and shot him three more times, twice in the back, and once more in the head.

"Bloody fool," Mulch heard her mutter as she squatted down to check the gnome's pulse. You could never be too careful when it came to magical creatures, but apparently there were wounds even magic could not fix, for Sylph did not put an additional shot in the body after rising. Instead, she opened her suit computer, talking into the mike located on her right wrist. "Blaze, I got some bad news. Copperly is dead."

There was a brief period of silence while she listened to the reply. Mulch threw Doodah a quick look, just to make sure he was okay. The pixie looked a little pale, but that was it.

"His conscience got the better of him, a family member that didn't react well to the dust. Yes, the body is at my feet, I'll find a place to dump it. You should contact command, tell them to find a way to acquire the deed to this place. If they don't, the operation might get delayed. Ok, I'll see you soon." She closed the computer and bowed down, grabbing hold of Copperly's arms. "Okay, Zoey, time to get you to the incinerator before you start to stink."

Mulch had heard, and _seen _enough. This was much bigger than he'd anticipated. Time to get the hell out of here, preferably before they ended up like the gnome. He motioned for Doodah to move towards the stairs where they'd come up. The pixie nodded, and began to move.

It's funny how our lives are determined by these tiny decisions, along with the big ones. Sure, choosing a college or workplace is important, but what if you decided to stay home for five more minutes before you went to school, in order to finish watching your favorite cartoon, and then had to trot all the way, and you then in your hurry did not see the black pickup speed through the crossing in front of the school, causing it to hit you with a speed of 88 miles per hour. The two impacts, the first when the pickup hits you, and the second when you hit the ground after flying three meters through the air, would crush your skull like a nut.

Or, a small decision like putting on a pair of shoes just a touch too smooth, like Doodah had done this morning, causing himto slip on the vomit he himself had placed so neatly on the ground.

* * *

Sylph's head jerked around when the sound of the little thump reached her ears. She immediately scanned her surroundings in the direction where she'd heard the sound. Had any of the workers come back to retrieve something they'd forgotten? Only one way to find out.

"Taggard!?" She called. "Creo? Is that you?" No answer. But she was convinced she'd heard something.

She reached down into a pocket and pulled out a small, black object, the size of a cockroach. It was a drone. She started it up through her suit computer and threw it up into the air, two small wings sliding out from its interior, keeping it hovering. She expertly maneuvered the drone towards the upper floor, where she thought the sound had come from.

_Oh, what have we here? _She thought as two small fairies appeared in the drone's line of sight. They were crawling slowly along the rail, careful not make a sound. Eavesdroppers?

_Can't have that, _she thought, activating her shield. Sinking down to a squat, she launched herself into the air with her muscular legs, using her wings to gain additional altitude. Flying while shielding is not as easy as it sounds, but she was a natural. She had never met a sprite that could fly better than here, and if she ever did, she would be sure to kill the bastard. She positioned herself almost directly above the two, dropping her shield.

"Evening, gentlemen. What brings you here this lovely evening?"

The eavesdroppers froze, and then both looked up at here with identical, pale expressions.

"Um, hello," the dwarf croaked nervously, getting up on his feet. "We are from… Drudge Cleaning Ltd, and we're here to offer you two weeks free service, if you'd like to employ us."

"Nice try," Sylph said, landing a few meters away from them. She kept her gun pointed at the dwarf, who seemed like the more dangerous of the two. "Who sent you? Do you work for the LEP?"

"I can honestly say that the Police Plaza is not our usual workplace," the dwarf said, putting on what he undoubtedly thought was a charming expression.

Sylph was inclined to believe that these two were not official employees of the police force. Most likely they were just snitches or something out to earn some easy gold by selling information to the LEP. In that case, eliminating them should not cause any negative consequences, but she had to be sure.

She flicked her suit computer open and tried to call HQ to request backup that could help her out with an interrogation, but couldn't get through. _Great, the one time I actually need their help the d'arvn operator is taking a coffee break. _Apparently, she would have to handle this herself, as usual.

"I'm afraid you two gentlemen will have to oblige yourself with helping me out with something. You can start by putting your arms on your heads, right now."

The two increasingly sweaty-looking gentlemen obeyed silently.

"Good. Now turn around." Again, instant obedience. Excellent, now she just had to march them down into the cellar and beat them up for a couple of hours until they talked. The fact that there were two of them should only make that part easier. Over the years, she'd learned that even the toughest, gung-ho jackasses broke down when she threatened to stick a red-hot stick of metal up their asses, and that dwarf's ass looked big enough to fit a floor lamp if you asked her…

Suddenly, Sylph feared she'd made a terrible mistake by telling the dwarf to turn around, and just a second later, her fears were confirmed. The dwarf's tunnel pants' bum-flap was blasted open when he released the largest amount of dwarf gas ever sent her way. She was knocked backwards several meters, landing on her wings. A sharp pain surged through them, and for a moment she feared they'd been dislocated, but a quick check told her they were not. Still hurt like hell though, at least until the magic began to dull the pain.

She looked up to see the two eavesdroppers running away. She didn't bother to shout, just swung her arm around and fired at the bastards. The weapon in her hand was a Softnose gun she'd taken from a B'wa Kell member during their attempted revolution a few years back. To her, seeing her targets actually be penetrated by the laser was much preferable to just seeing their heads be blown into a trillion different atoms upon being vaporized. She fired two shots; the first one missing the goddamn dwarf with a few inches. The second one hit the pixie in the right thigh.

She coughed out a hoarse laughter as the tiny fairy fell over with a scream, red fluid coming from his wound. The dwarfs stopped short, looking back. Sylph saw the fear in his eyes, the self-preservation instinct screaming at him to leave his friend behind.

_Come on you little shit, _Sylph thought. _Run back and help him so that I can shoot you right in that ugly face of yours. _

The dwarf did as he was told, retracting his four previous steps flinging the pixie across his shoulder. The blood had already stopped flowing, but the pixie was still panting like a dog. Healing big injuries took a toll on even the strongest pixie. Sylph made sure to aim carefully this time, staring down the sights into the dwarf's eyes. A vampiric smile that Artemis Fowl himself would have approved of formed on her lips as she pulled the trigger.

She heard a click, but no laser beam was fired. The battery was dead.

_D'Arvit! _she swore mentally and quickly emptied the primitive weapon. She knew she should have stolen one of those d'arvn Solar cells instead of depending on batteries. With one hand she opened the gun and flicked the empty battery away, while using the other to retrieve a charged one from her belt. Meanwhile, the dwarf had realized that fate had granted him a few extra seconds, and was now running away at full speed. Her prey was slipping away.

She slammed the new battery into the gun and took aim, her eyes fixed on the dwarf's broad back, which made an excellent target. She fired.

The dwarf dived into the stairs, evading her shot by a hair's breadth. She cursed out loud and pushed herself up from the floor, giving chase. She took the stairs in a single jump, softening her landing with the wings, and looked around. She walked through a short corridor and found herself in the cellar. She spotted the place where the dwarf had tunneled his way in instantly, since he'd been forced to remove a panel to get through. She was too late. The dwarf and his friend had already retreated through the tunnel, and by the time she got out of the building they would be long gone.

"FUCK!" she snarled, a swear-word she'd taken a liking to after watching Mud Men crime series. If the LEP got a whiff of the operation prematurely because of this, her head would roll.

She quickly scanned through the footage captured by her drone, but found nothing that could help her deduce the identities of the two eavesdroppers. She had nothing, nothing that could help her search.

Unless…

She quickly walked back up the stairs into the lab, and immediately found what she was looking for. The bloodstain after the pixie's wound on the floor. She quickly retrieved a sample by dragging the tip of her forefinger over the slippery floor, ordering the suit computer to conduct a scan. Five seconds later, she had the DNA code. Six seconds after that, she had a name. Four seconds passed, and she had an address.

"Diggums & Day, private investigators, huh?" She mumbled, a wry smile forming on her lips.

Normally she would have preferred to do this solo, but to ensure success; she should probably call for backup. No sooner had she finished the thought, a blinking red light appeared on the computer's interface. _Speak of the devil, _she thought, accepting the call.

"Command told me you tried to contact them a few minutes ago. What's going on?" the goblin's husky voice spoke quickly. He sounded out of breath, as if he'd just done some heavy exercising.

_Straight to business as usual, _she thought dryly.

"A pair of private eyes saw me terminating Copperly. They got away before I could apprehend them."

Quick silence. "Shit. What did they hear?"

"Probably everything. I'm going to deal with them now. Wanna come?"

"You know who they are?"

"Got one of them in the leg before they escaped. Scanned the DNA."

"Ok. Meet me in front of Spud's in half an hour; I just need to slap my armor back on."

"Looking forward to it," she purred, ending the call. Maybe this was her day after all. The pixie had seemed like a pussy, but that dwarf might make interesting quarry. Either way, it would be fun to spend some quality time with Blaze again. But first…

She jumped back down on the first floor, grabbing Copperly's corpse by the arm. Now where was that d'arvn incinerator again?


End file.
